MISSOURI 2002 IRRIGATION SURVEY

Presented at the Irrigation Conference, Columbia, MO. February 2003
University of Missouri Outreach and Extension and Commercial Agriculture Program
Ray Massey and Mary Sobba

This is the 25 th year the University of Missouri has collected data from Missouri farmers on irrigation
performance. The data presented here are the average values for 31 irrigation systems that responded
to our December 2002 survey. Individual farms may report more than 1 system. Irrigation systems
located in the southeast region of Missouri are not included in this report.

The number of surveys returned was about the same as last year. All of the respondents indicated that
they used their irrigation system this year. Survey respondents included 25 irrigation systems irrigating
corn and 27 systems irrigating single-crop soybeans in Missouri in 2002.

Respondents reported that corn yields from land irrigated with an average of 6.3 inches of water
exceeded dryland corn yields by 54 bushels. Irrigated single-crop soybean yields exceeded dryland
yields by 11.9 bushels, with 4.6 inches of water being applied.

Sixty six percent of the systems were fixed center pivots; 21% were towable center pivots and 13%
were traveling gun. Pumping power was predominately diesel (65% of the systems), followed by 35%
of the systems using electricity. Ninety percent of the respondents reported that their irrigation water
supply was adequate. One hundred percent of those that used reservoirs reported that their reservoirs
were full in June.

Page 4 of this report contains crop budgets using this survey data, average Missouri production costs
and 2002 harvest time prices. Other government payments are not included. This year the net return to
land and management for corn was 25.87/acre; single crop soybeans resulted in $77.27/acre. Returns
to land and management were profitable for both corn and soybeans in 2002. The income change due
to irrigation was positive $36.04 for corn but negative $7.69 for soybeans (see bottom table of page 4).